Daughter of the Light

See Granddad wanted a boy, but he got three girls huh

You found yourself trying to bridge these worlds, Ma

That's a childhood guilt that you might've felt huh

But he's a man of his time and in his shell, Ma

But is it normal to see mouths move?

Up and down, no sound alongside

You learned to lipread, you learned you had to bluff too

Then lit a flame to look up to a light

That would guide you back home on the darkest night

Robin said "a kid's drowning" you cast aside your safety

Swam on out and saved his life

At just eleven years old, something age defied and the

Woman that girl became Worked Kings Cross lanes with the bottom rung

And have never really known of forgotten ones

The hopeless, the homeless and on the run

So when I see you walking with that gangsta limp

A 'life lived properly' limp that grandmas get

I think about the path taken and the number of steps

And how it's shaping you, whatever come next

To sing your song, knowing that some things go wrong

I'm not loving that it's Peter Paul and Mary you want

But like a bridge over trouble, carry on

You're like a bridge over trouble, carry on

Still singing

Despite it all I rise

Though I may walk blind

I'm guided by a bigger force than me

I tried to live my life

As a daughter of the light

But you find out nothing's guaranteed

Despite it all I rise

Though I may walk blind

One day all of this will disappear

And I ain't got no use for all this light

If I can't share it with you dear

I look back through a mix of blurred vision

From a childhood lens and a distant rear vision

What the bible says, well it seems to have gone missing

When the violence there makes your home feel like prison

I remember that much, I remember your clutches

That held us all together from the start

Broken little family to mend and I'm not pulling punches

It took a lot to pull us all apart

Yep, take it all slowly, get a part time job

Got to pay the bills, got to take the kid to cricket training

Got to try to keep the front, everything will be okay

How long can you keep it up, underneath the poverty line

Somehow you just did it but got us through it over time?

Gotta do it full time? Nothing to it Overdraft?

Every other month and I never got the Pumps

But instead I got the mum who pulled us up out of the dumps

So now it goes

So when I see you walking with that gangsta limp

A 'life lived properly' limp that grandmas get

I think about the path taken and the number of steps

And how it's shaping you, whatever come next

To sing your song, knowing that some things go wrong

I'm not loving that it's Peter Paul and Mary you want

But like a bridge over trouble, carry on

You're like a bridge over trouble, carry on

Despite it all I rise

Though I may walk blind

I'm guided by a bigger force than me

I tried to live my life

As a daughter of the light

But you find out nothing's guaranteed

Despite it all I rise

Though I may walk blind

One day all of this will disappear

And I ain't got no use for all this light

If I can't share it with you dear

And there's a moment at 6am, waking up bleary-eyed

Jetta wants you to read her a book

She taps you on the head and says "wake up Namah look!" Dog and Bird with a bit of theatre in your just woke up voice She's wriggling one foot "Grandma more!"

And I smile half asleep at the door